it's the top of the hour, you're in the cnn newsroom. one of the most well known figures in the world of politics has die theed. former senator arlen specter passed away today after a long battle with cancer, he was 82 years old. we'll have more on the law maker's life and legacy in just a few molts. mission accomplished for sky diver felix baumgartner. his crew believes he broke three records, one for the fastest free fall ever, one for the highest free fall, a and one for the highest manned balloon.

chad myers has been with me throughout the afternoon follow this death defying jump. among the records, he said including going the highest for any human in a manned balloon, that being confirmed. there was one he did not break? >> it appears, so fredericka. >> he may not have breaken the record for the longest free fall. that was one of the records he was trying to set. of course he did break other incredibly important records of the highest ever jump that anyone has ever undertaken. v he broke that record by more than 25,000 feet. that record had held for 52 years. he also went through the sound barrier. he did that going at least 704 miles an hour.

we read one speedometer, we're trying to confirm the exact speechltd it looks like any way you cut it, he did break the sound barrier. two really important records, the highest jump, 128,000 feet. and going through the sound comparier, no one has ever done that outside of a vehicle. >> trying to get some updates on his exact condition. from what we have learned from mission control in the moments after, he was able to speak to the media in roswell this afternoon, so that is going on as scheduled as far as we know. so every indication is that felix baumgartner is doing just fine. you can see his landing there, he basically landed with his feet going, he landed running and then he stood up and put his

fist to the sky in celebration. it appears that he's doing absolutely fine and we hope to hear from him soon. >> what a moment indeed. that jump was heart pounding for anyone who was watching it un230e8d right here on cnn. meteorologist chad myers who's joining me for our live coverage, this is not a thrillseeker kind of moment. but it is a big step forwards science. >> it's getting astronauts and cosmonauts down from a similar position in space. let's say one of these space tours things ten, 20 years from now, goes horribly wrong at 60 miles high, can those people be in a suit that could save them? and i think felix proved a lot of that today. and i'm in there watching the press conference that brian was talking about. he's doing absolutely fine, although one of the things he said in the beginning was i was

in real trouble. when we talked got, he thought he was in real trouble. he fought that spin harder than he has ever fought a spin. he knows everything about how to use his hands how to stop the spin, he said he fought that for what seemed like minutes. we watched it on tape, and it really wasn't that long, but he thought he was in real trouble. his smile on that press conference, i have never seen anyone smile that big, it was so happy. >> there were moments of from the point when he left that capsule to about 5,000 just above ground where we ended up having to show people on tape, because in large part, we really

could not tell what kind of demeanor he was in, what his situation was. we only learned later that there was that spin out of control and he's a able to explain it. but it was important to be very cautious about that moment and not be able to show that live as it was happening. >> i sat in a meeting on monday and another one on tuesday when this was supposed to happen the first time. and we talked it out and said which cannot show someone fall to their death. we can't do that. we have to put that -- >> potentially. >> what's the big deal if we wait five minutes to be sure that felix is talking. as soon as he yanked that cord and he was able to talk down to ground control, he knew he was going to make it and we went right back to it. i was a little bit concerneds when he was still in the capsule and not speaking very clearly. and i'm thinking, wow, maybe 20

second delay isn't enough becaus because--he wasn't responding and he goes please spongd, please respond and then finally he came out of what he was going through, maybe he was just mentally going through it, getting ready for it. but us on the ground didn't know what he was thinking, we thought he was in trouble, makes oxygen, whatever was going on there. did he let all the oxygen out of the capsule, did his suit pressurize? everything that could have gone wrong went right. >> it was good to see the live portion, the tape portion and it's wonderful to be able to learn from this mission. we're also looking at the space shuttle "endeavour" arriving at its new home, in it's kind of final lap closing in on that 12-mile journey that

people have been riveted by over the last 24 to 48 hours. it took a little longer than expected by about 15 hours, but there were some tight squeezes along the way, even though so much preparation had been done prior to the shuttle's arrival in los angeles, now it's almost at that california science museum where it will rest in some finality for all to see the a- a turning point in a presidential race. a town hall style jshowdown tak place in new york. mark preston, before the first presidential debate, the conventional wisdom was that the debates really don't matter that much, but we saw mitt romney

gain some ground in polls, so how much now is riding on this debate? >> well, i mean this is the most important day of the election season. we have been saying that, fred, ever since -- well, ever since the election start, we saw mitt romney come out in that first debate and he defied all the critics and all the skeptics and he put on quite a show. and president obama had a very bad debate. even one of his senior advisors said today that he needs to do better. let's hear what he told candy crowley on the state of the union, what we can expect from president obama tuesday night. >> he knew when he walked off stage and he also knew when he watched the tape of that debate, that he's got to be more energetic, i think you'll see somebody that's more passionate about the problems that face the

american people. >> candy crowley also had ed gillesp gillesp gillespie, mitt romney's adviser. >> the president can change his style, he can change his rhetoric, but he can't change his policies so that's what this election is about. >> this is going to be hugely important especially coming on the heels of the vice presidential debate. a lot of people thought joe biden did a good enough job of setting the table for president obama tuesday night. >> mark this is a town hall style, it's the hottest ticket in town, there in hempstead new york. who's going to be in the audience? how do they get those tickets? >> if you're hoping to come here to the university to come to the

debate on tuesday, i suggest you leave it on cnn because you won't be able to get in. the tickets are all alotted. they went to the students, they went to -- interestingly enough the audience was picked up by the gallup organization and they did a sample of uncommitted voters here in this area, these are voters who have not decided who they're absolutely going to vote for on election day. those will be the voter that will be in the audience and those will be the voters who will be asking the questions. >> of course we'll all be tuning in tuesday night, you can watch the second presidential debate live right here on cnn. our coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. the debate of course moderated by our very own candy crowley. >> right now more on the death of former senator arlen specter, the veteran lawmaker died today over complications from

nonhodgkin's lymphoma. specter was the longest serving u.s. senator from pennsylvania. he's being remembered as a fearless fighter who courageous youly backed cancer and stood up for the things he believed in. senator patrick leahy, thank you so much for joining us, our condolences to all those who loved, respected and knew arrest listen spector, what do you suppose his legacy will be? >> i think that in many ways he'll be remembered as being a senator's senator. and before that sounds like too much inside baseball, i was walking along the road by our home here in vermont today and i was thinking he was like the vermont republican senators we see, people who strongly believe in their party, but believe in their country first, and if it

came to a question of following party orders or following what was best for the country, he always went with the country first, which is what senators are supposed to do. and i think that's why sometimes members of his own party consider him very unpredictable and he was unpredictable because he cared about the people more than his own party. >> he was both a republican and a democrat. he was part of a generation, it seems, of lawmakers willing to cross the aisle, work with the other side. as you compare sort of his generation of lawmakers to today's generation of lawmakers, what are the distinctive differences to say it's okay to cross the aisle.

>> with arlen, we first met when we were young prosecutors back 40 years ago. morning 40 years ago. and when he came to the senate, you saw him as a person who trusted his own instinct, he would do his own home work, he would know what he thought was best. we have had people like that in both parties, i remember when republican bob dole and democrat pat moynihan came together to fix social security. they didn't go by party litmus test. they went by what was best for the country. arlen did that over and over again. we were close friends because we knew we could set aside party labels, we could sit down and try to work out things that were best. we have got to go back to those days. i think one of the reasons why the congress is held in such lowest steam today is because there's too much of doing party

line, especially since the tea party came in, there's been too much party line sloganeering and not pundits. he's battled cancer before, he nearly died a couple of times before he was -- he was a fiblgter. i know he was in bad shape this last few weeks, i wasn't able to talk to him on the phone, i sent him a longhand written note that my wife and i had him in our prayers and thoughts. he was supposed to have died several times before from illnesses and he battled through him. >> senator leahy, thank you so much for your thoughts and remembering your friend arlen specter.

>> thank you very much. the second presidential debate now just two days away, how do you prepare for 90 minutes of intense questions and answers? we'll talk with the debate moderator, our very own candy crowley. now, that's what i call a test drive. silverado! the most dependable, longest lasting, full-size pickups on the road. so, what do you think? [ engine revs ] i'll take it. [ male announcer ] it's chevy truck month. now during chevy truck month,

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with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. america chooses a president in 23 days, but before that we have two more presidential debates, the next one tuesday night at hofstra university in new york moderate bid our own candy crowley. i talked with candy and asked her how this might influence the tone of the debate.

>> i think it will in this way, it is very hard to be overheated when answering a question from a nice young woman, a nice old man, whatever, who asks a town hall question, which generally begins something like, you know, mr. president or governor, i lost my job, blah, blah, blah, blah. to then have the tools to engage in a knock down dragout tends to be something they don't do in a crowd that's that close to them. and you and i know that they would run over me in a second. you know, would really push the envelope with a member of the media, but it is very hard to do that to an uncommitted volter. >> our colleagues have given you some advise for these debates. >> i have noticed in these did baits when the candidate where

is asked about a certain topic, they sometimes stray off of it. >> really hold the candidates' feet to the fire. >> what is the best thing you can say about the opposition party. >> what's been the happiest moment of your life and what's been the saddest moment of your life. >> i'm sure a lot of folks have tried to give you advise, not that you need any. but it sounds like a lot of folks are saying to have a sense of humor about it all too. >> lost you want to get to know a little bit. you want the kind of offbeat question that exposes something about the candidate that others might not know, that is at the same time relevant to who you might want in a president. that sort of reveals something about their character, but i don't lack as you may note from suggestions. and the sad thing is, that 90 minutes is not as long as you think it is. if you could see my inbox, i will tell you that people have questions about so many things and in the end, it has to be

questions about things where, a, they have a difference of opinion, and b, where we have a chance of kind of opening up new territory. >> all right, thanks candy and of course you can see for yourself how it will all unfold, the second presidential debate, our coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern on tuesday night, moderated by candy crowley. a brave 14-year-old girl dares to speak out against the taliban and now she gets shot for it. now we have new updates.

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in pakistan, thousands of mourners gatt tore pray for a 14-year-old who was killed by the taliban. she's still unconscious but making slow and steady progress. the taliban shot the girl for speaking out about her right to go to school. >> i have the right to sing, i have the right to talk, i have the right to go to market. i have a right to speak. >> so huge outpouring of support for the little girl.

is there any hope for her recovery? >> yesterday they took her off the ventilator for a little bit. but she remains unconscious. the doctors say it's a miracle that she has survived. it's very rare that anyone can even get to the place where she is right now on a vent late for, unconscious, being shotpoint blank in the head. >> she's been moved from one facility to the next, security reasons in large part, but also just better medical equipment available? >> there has been an offer from the ua, they have a plane with doctors, if they want to move her. but she has to stay put because

she's so severely wounded in the head. >> people in country were already riveted by this little girl who just seems to have kind of an old soul about her, a sense of maturity and poise that is just markable. then after she was shot it just timed to multiply in terms of her power, even though she is recovering from this gunshot wound. she really has become a symbol, push for women's rights in the middle east. >> when we think of the valley where she lived, this is a hot bed of militancy and she still dared to speak her mind, to talk to other girls in her school and tell them do not stay home, do

not be intimidated by the taliban which is opposed to girls' education. the government went in and managed to clear out the taliban but obviously they pose a big danger. and they have said if she survived, we are going to kill her. even her family is afraid, her father was a principal, one of the last schools to close for girls when the taliban took over in 2007, he held out until the last moment, and they closed the school in 2009. it's close to the afghan border very heavy with militancy and the taliban and nthey managed t push them out and reopen the schools, but we see that it's still not safe, but the girls in her class, the whole region, they say we are going to get educated. they see this outpouring of

support. but the taliban says nobody goes against us and survives. >> thank you for that update. right now to this political news here in the u.s., former u.s. senator arlen specter died at the age of 82 this morning. he played key roles in critical senate battles, the senator angered colleagues by switching from republican to democrat. he lost his last bid for re-election. those who knew arlen specter well, senator bob casey joining us now by phone. thanks for joining us and our hearts go out to the family mourning the passing of arlen specter. you described senator, as, quote, a statesman and a problem solver.

what in your kept in this fight as a lawmaker for 30 years. >> he tried to work with people in both parties and was very successful in those efforts, but he became as many of us do became increasingly frustrated with the partisanship in washington. but he never stopped fighting, he never stopped working on behalf of the people of our commonwealth and we benefitted tremendously from his work and there's a lot of legacies and a lot of results that we can point to, but one of them is focus on research, the national institutes of health, it's a great testament to his work. >> how does he inspire you? earlier i spoke with patrick leahy about what almost seems to be a distongue shung of generations, that arlen specter and many other veterans on capitol hill are willing to work on both sides of the ail, but

kind of the younger generations of lawmakers, they are reticent to do so, you are one of those younger generations of lawmakers on the hill. does he inspire you to want to cross the aisle and work things out? >> no question about it, i think he was an inspiration to a lot of us. when i got there, he was in his 25th year. one of the first things he said to me was literally on the way to lunch, he said it's important for to us work together as democrats an republicans it's also important for people to see us working together. he knew at the time and he would say today, once people see that and they see evidence of it, it's not enough just to make the attempt. and at that time it didn't mean as much to me as it does now.

and now probably more so because of the nature of our politics in washington. his suggestions and his advice have even more meaning now. >> pennsylvania senator bob casey, thanks so much for your thoughts. a university admits to flunking students just because they were jewish. we'll talk with the man who tracked down the students and revealed those stories, a business report comes out this week that could show how americans are feeling about the future of the economy ♪ well, he ♪ to look at [ sighs ] ♪ oh, he's shaggy ♪ and he eats like a hog [ male announcer ] the volkswagen jetta. available with advanced keyless technology. control everything from your pocket, purse, or wherever. that's the power of german engineering. ♪ that dirty, old egg-suckin' dog ♪

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like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. . wall street is looking for a big economic number. retail sales numbers for september are expected to come out in the monk. and they're expected to show we're getting in a spending mood. todd, good to see you. why is this such a critical number. >> well, it is because it can show actually how the u.s. economy is doing, but also how american congress assumers are feeling and we are expected, like you said, to see an increase in september, close to 1% and this would be great because in august, we actually saw an increase of .9%.

americans should be feeling better about the kmir-- >> this is a real prelude to the holiday shopping season. you're actually expecting maybe a big increase in, a jump, say in the 5% range? >> the annual increase has been got 3.5%. >> the economy actually is improving and if that's the case, you're going to have more people hitting those malls, you're already starting to see some of that with the early sales that are taking place.

>> and you're seeing people being hired for those seasonal jobs. >> if you want a part-time job, now is the time to get out there. >> you have companies like toys are us, fedex, u.p.s., coles who have really announced tens of thousands of new workers they're looking to do this holiday season. >> it might be great to assist with the u.s. economy. >> get out there for halloween time to now start applying for those holiday jobs. >> thank you so much. >> the student s flunked out ofa university because of their

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emery university in atlanta is saying we're sorry to dozens of students, they were all enrolled in the school decades ago, all of them either flunked out or were forced to repeat a year or even more, and all of these students were singled out because they were jewish. so in 2006, you put together this exhibit on jewish life at the university. how did it go from that exhibit

to this kind of revolution and a real pulling back of the curtain that this kind of discrimination happened to this degree on campus. >> one of the people who viewed the exhibit was perry brickman, one of the former students from the dental school, and he was shocked to see this event discussed in such detail. so he approached me later and it sort of got him started doing research to find out what had happened to him and these other students. he interviewed many of those students and collected an amazing amount of material and developed a video presentation about this and we consulted about it and ultimately we approached the emery administration and they were very sorry about this and they wanted to make a statement of regret about these things that happened 50 or 60 years ago. >> brickman was able to

demonstrate to you and others what happened to him and was able to connect the dots that it similarly happened to lots of other people, only to include that they were indeed discriminated against because of the jewish? >> to some extent amount of this information was already known in 1961 when the anti-defamation league did a study about the numbers of students that failed out. but what brickman did is he tracked down these students and interviewed them. he had them say in their own words what happened to them with stories and incidents and it added a whole new level of what happened. >> here's a portion of that documentary. >> we got that dreaded letter, and more likely than not, our parents would say, what have you done to me? when you began to try to explain what happened, nobody believed you.

they just didn't believe, oh, that's impossible. emory? we just shut up. it was a fraternity of silence. >> and what happened to the dream of so many who believed what the university was telling them, that they were not up to snuff, that they shouldn't be dental students, they could never go on to be dentists and they left. did many feel so discouraged about that that they just didn't even pursue a dental career in other places. >> some did pursue a dental career, like dr. brickman, others went into medical professions, most of them did extremely well in whatever profession they chose, but at the same time they carried with them a sense of embarrassment

and a sense of discrimination and many of them never told their wives or children about it. >> they felt embarrassed? or a stigma? >> because it was never acknowledged it was discrimination, they had to tell their parents they were circumstanced out of school and they didn't feel like it was a topic they wanted to talk about for many years. >> there's a feeling among many of them that the university is handling it properly now? >> i think that you can never really go back and undo something that was done so many years ago and really caused so much pain and impacted people's lives, but emory has said they're sorry and issued a statement of regret and this has

allowed many of them to speak about it for the first time and to process the feelings and have the acknowledgement that this was not their fault, it was something that was done to them. >> so many students at emery got to see this for the first time. and it was just simply heart breaking. >> it was kind of an opening of the door, this silence of so many years was lifted and the most impressive thing was to see many of these men who had never spoken of this to stands up at a different to testify and to tell their own stories and many of them had children who had never known about this until these past weeks and to see that all coming together as a result of these events and as a result of harry brickman's work and emery's acknowledgement it was a wonderful feeling that at least that was able to happen.

>> and you can read more on this story in our belief blog at cnn.com/belief. ♪ hi dad. many years from now, when the subaru is theirs... hey. you missed a spot. ...i'll look back on this day and laugh. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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> romney and obama are practicing for their second debate. >> round two, president obama and mitt romney face off in their second debate tuesday, a town hall, moderated by cnn's candy crowley which says the format presents unique challenges for the candidates. >> they've got to connect with not only the people who are watching the television, but the people on the stage with them, some 80 or so undecided voters as chosen by gallup. they have to keep those folks in mind, it's a much more intimate debate with voters.

>> one bad debate is losing a battle. two bad debates could very well northeastern he loses the war. >> i think you're going to see a very different president obama this time around. he's got to be seen as being aggressive, but he can't be seen as being overly aggressive. >> romney has enjoyed a post debate bounce in national polls and a boost of confidence on the campaign trail. >> there's more energy and passion, people are getting behind this campaign. >> at a town hall without a podium and with audience interaction, the candidates style and body language with take on added weight. at the first town hall style debate in 1984 george bush clearly didn't want to be there. one thing that can make it hard

for a candidate to be aggressive is a question like this? >> can we focus on the issues and not the personalities and the mud? >> analysts say the format could be good for the president. >> he will absolutely be able to draw from the energy of the the public and the crowd. >> as for >> one of his big challenges during this entire campaign has been not being able to connect with the common man and woman and child. he's got to be able to come across as connecting. he's got to come across as genuine, as caring, as likable. >> the candidate that makes a connection with the person asking the question is making a connection with the folks back home. >> reporter: the stakes couldn't be higher. they will square off tuesday night. our special live coverage beginning at 7:00 eastern time. the debate will be moderated by our own candy crowley. bob, these projections... they're... optimistic.

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we've got much more of the newsroom straight ahead with the don man. >> i like that. we have to be fast, because that was a great interview, a great emery interview. tuesday's presidential debate, make or break for president

obama? we'll take a look at it. and we'll look at the vp date through the lens of last night's "saturday night live." >> first of all, i want to host center college for hosting us this evening. >> oh, boy, here we go. >> four years ago, president obama made a promise. that he would bring down unemployment below 6%. >> oh, this guy. >> that is funny. but there was a serious discussion on all the sunday talkers this morning, all the hype from one vp debate puts more pressure on mitt romney and president obama to bring their a-games coming up in the next debate. >> a lot is riding on this next debate. we'll be watching. candy crowley will with the moderator. we'll see you minutes away now. much more with don lemon. thanks, don. it's been an incredible day.

this was hard to pull yourself from the screen. we'll talk about skydiver felix baumgarner and his tremendous feat. we'll show you moment to moment what happened. ♪

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he did it. skydiver felix baumgarner landed on his feet after a 128,000 foot jump from the edge of space. he accomplished this with only a space suit, a helmet and a chute

and a great crew 679 here is how it all unfolded. >> there is the capsule. shortly after midnight tonight, as it came out of the hangar, the helium and big tanks delivered to the launch pad. >> moving across new mexico. >> they'll depressurize it part way, at which point baumgarner's pressure suit should automatically begin to inflate. >> give me a short count. okay, keep your head down. release the helmet tie down strap. start the cameras.

and a guardian angel will take care of you. [ indiscernible ] >> speed 729 and decelerating. >> there's the chute. there's the chute.